All right Buckaroos. This was my first Tingler ever.
Chuck Tingle is a GodDamned National Treasure. Fight me.
The six stories are exactly what the title says: non-sexual encounters. What they are, however, is Tingle’s usual joyous sensual attack on the English language, with Unicorns, ravenous dinosaur-men, bigfoots (bigfeet?), somewhat innocent main characters, and a cacophony of erotic non-erotica that was a positive delight to read. Tingle doesn’t so much break the fourth wall as sidle around the corner, wink at his reader, and carry on with the story.
“Not every Chuck Tingle book has sex in it,” I explain.
Mr. Blonto scoffs. “Somehow I doubt that,” the well-dressed bigfoot retorts.
“It’s true,” I insist. “This one isn’t.” (Kindle loc 99)
And, I mean, I just about lost it completely at “A Chuck Tingle-themed amusement park”. Because why not? And this is not even to get into the second story and its hero “Luck Dingle”. Story three is a delightful exploration of rivers and relationships that branch and fork and that can come to a halt all together if someone doesn’t want to continue (withdraws consent, in other words)…Tingle covers a lot of diverse ground with points that are not always subtle or perfectly written, but are still a lot of fun.
I’ve hesitated about purchasing other Tinglers, and to be honest while I might buy them to help pay his bills I’m not as likely to read them — the stories were a delight but also not really my type, and they could have used just a little bit more editing (not a lot, just a little), but I definitely get a sense of Tingle’s pleasure in writing them and the writing grounds them in a weird sort of reality where we just accept that dinosaur men come in creepy and also just lustily hungry versions.